New figures show that adults in East Midlands do not trust the tobacco industry

On World No Tobacco Day, new figures show that adults in the East Midlands don’t trust the tobacco industry. This is at a time when tobacco companies have been lobbying local and national governments to work with them more closely.

Data from the Smokefree Britain survey, conducted by YouGov, found that 75 per cent of adults in the West Midlands support the view that all government health policy should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry and its representatives (4 per cent oppose) and 76 per cent believe that political parties should not accept financial or in kind donations from tobacco industry (8 per cent believe they should).

This public concern about the role of the tobacco industry in politics is underpinned by a damming assessment of the behaviour of companies. 66 per cent of adults in the West Midlands say that tobacco companies do not behave ethically (4 per cent say they do) while 72 per cent say they cannot be trusted to tell the truth (5 per cent say they can).

To mark World No Tobacco Day this year Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) have published a new briefing paper detailing how the tobacco industry uses the issue of illicit tobacco to attempt to influence government:

• It uses the threat of illicit trade to try to stop Government action to reduce smoking and tobacco consumption, exaggerating its extent in the UK, while still being complicit in the trade itself – particularly in the diversion of genuine tobacco products into illicit channels

• It exaggerates the extent of illicit trade, and distorts the key features of the trade, particularly by inflating the proportion of illicit cigarettes and tobacco products that are counterfeit, and under-estimating the proportion that are genuine

• It uses illicit trade to try to develop inappropriate relationships with Governments, local authorities and enforcement agencies.

Half of all councils with public health responsibility have now signed a Declaration confirming they will act to protect health policies from the vested interests of tobacco companies, in line with the UK’s obligations under the international World Health Organisation treaty on tobacco; the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Chief Executive of ASH, Deborah Arnott said:

Tobacco companies have a long and inglorious history of attempting to fix public policy to serve their commercial interests. On World No Tobacco Day, it is clear that in the West Midlands the public and politicians will have none of this. They do not see any role for tobacco companies in deciding on the policies we need end the death and disease caused by smoking.